Our court system is inadequately resourced to deal with serious child protection cases, according to the Child Care Law Reporting Project.

It has also found a lack of co-operation between social workers and Gardaí and not enough child specialist interviewers for complex cases.

The issues have led to delays in cases, court adjournments and inadequate investigation of allegations.

Director of the report, Dr Carol Coulter says the lack of resources add to the trauma for children involved.

She said: "If we had the right kind of system they would be interviewed by highly trained specialists in multi-disciplinary units involving both law enforcement - who could if necessary pursue criminal investigations if needed - and also social workers, therapists and so on who could provide the child with the support they need."